Despite collecting record revenues, government still runs $529 billion deficit

The federal government collected a record amount of taxes in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2015, exceeding $2.88 trillion in revenue, according to the latest monthly Treasury Department statement. Despite the revenue, which is still a record amount when adjusted for inflation, the federal government ran a deficit of $529 billion.

In the first 11 months of fiscal year 2015, the amount of taxes collected by the federal government outpaced the first 11 months of all previous fiscal years, even after adjusting for inflation. The 2015 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2014, and runs through Sept. 30, 2015.

Most of the $2.88 trillion the government collected came from individual income taxes, which comprised nearly half of that total, totaling $1.3 trillion.

The Treasury Department has been tracking these data on its website since 1998. In that fiscal year, the federal government collected about $2.3 trillion in inflation-adjusted revenue in the first 11 months. This means that since 1998, tax revenues have increased about 25 percent.

Although the federal government brought in a record of approximately $2.88 trillion in revenue in the first 11 months of fiscal 2015, according to the Treasury, it also spent approximately $3.4 trillion, leaving a deficit of approximately $529 billion.

Ali MeyerEmail Ali | Full Bio | RSSAli Meyer is a staff writer with the Washington Free Beacon covering economic issues that expose government waste, fraud, and abuse. Prior to the Free Beacon, she was a multimedia reporter with CNSNews.com where her work appeared on outlets such as Drudge Report and Fox News. She also interned with the Heritage Foundation and Pacific Research Institute. Her Twitter handle is @DJAliMeyer, and her email address is meyer@freebeacon.com.